Chapter 27
Claudel took charge of the housekeeping in this mansion that didn’t have a hostess.
She was the maidservant of the former Duchess and was now the head maid here.
Lionel could be relieved of his duties because he had known her since childhood.
“I entrust you with the care of Madame Katana.”
“Thank you, Master.”
Lionel sat on the bed and stared at Madame Katana, who was breathing heavily.
She certainly had a pale and haggard face, but her condition seemed more stable than in the beginning.
“Let me know once she wakes up.”
“I will.”
Lionel stumbled slightly.
Rambaud, who was behind Lionel, asked.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
“Any side effects?”
“None.”
“That’s amazing.”
Rambaud, whom he had not seen for several hours, seemed to have been quite busy.
Rambaud said to Lionel.
“I’ve looked into the Marquis Quill’s dr*gs and poison. There were quite a few who died from abusing the Marquis Quill’s dr*gs. Even if you are fine now, the Duke’s body may suffer aftereffects.”
“I don’t think so.”
Lionel looked fine, but Rambaud doubted his good health.
In fact, Rambaud paid even more attention because of the Marquis Quill’s intention to harm Lionel.
Quill had sincerely hoped for Lionel’s death.
“The Marquis of Quill was saying that he wanted to be Princess Marianne’s fiance. Hundreds of people have heard him say it. Many heard that he wanted to deal with the Duke of Sentoren for good. The Marquis of Quill wouldn’t have just botched this attempt on your life.”
This was not the Marquis Quill’s first kill. The Duke was lucky enough to not have died.
“I guess it’s pretty amazing that I’m alive without problems, Rambaud.”
“Think about it, Duke. What happened that night?”
“Quill was trying to kill me.”
Lionel remembered the words the Marquis had told him that night.
Marquis Quill boasted that he had fed Lionel a huge amount of poison.
Although Lionel’s mind was hazy, he still remembered those words clearly. Due to the excruciating pain, he thought that he might actually die.
If Madame Katana hadn’t come, he might not be here.
She seemed to have healed his body.
‘Was it an illusion?’
He had a hallucination of a strange red light that she released, that entered his body.
The moment that power was absorbed, his fever and racing pulse subsided.
It was then that Lionel realized he still had a chance to live.
‘Don’t tell me, Riv Katana possesses strange powers?’
Whether or not she had powers, it was obvious that Riv saved Lionel.
Lionel didn’t want her to die.
“What do you think, Duke?”
“Madame Katana saved me.”
Rambaud doubted Lionel. He had seen several deaths caused by the dr*gs and poisons of the Marquis Quill.
“It’s best to be sure though.”
Rambaud handed Lionel a small glass bottle.
“That is an antidote I prepared to counter the dr*gs just in case. It will definitely work.”
Lionel drank the blue potion Rambaud had given him. Rambaud checked the empty vial.
Only then did he look relieved
“Now rest.”
Lionel left for his room. The Duke’s escorts closely guarded the door to his bedroom.
Rambaud went straight downstairs.
When night came, the mansion of the Duke was as quiet as a tomb, even though a few maids were moving about.
The butler called Rambaud as he crossed the dark hallway.
“Is the Duke fine?”
Rambaud could see that the butler Carl was restless as he was pacing around the first floor.
Rambaud nodded his head.
“It would be good to increase the security in the Duke’s mansion. Just in case.”
“We did set up more escorts.”
Nothing happened today, but the Duke’s vassals could not easily get over the matter.
Because of the fickle royal family, the Duke was nearly killed.
His fiancée Princess Marianne conspired against him. If the Duke of Sentoren disappeared, the people who would rejoice the most were the royal family.
The royal family always drove Lionel to the battlefield. There were suspicions that the royal family was involved in the death of the previous Duke and Duchess of Sentoren.
Even then, Lionel was called to the battlefield, so he could not protect his parents from death.
Lionel’s engagement was also established and maintained due to pressure from the royal family.
They were relieved that the engagement had been broken, but still, Lionel had no wife or heir.
The Duke’s servants and escorts had a duty to protect the Duke of Sentoren, Lionel.
***
After a light meal, Claudel returned to Madame Katana’s bedroom.
In the dark room, the bed dimly lit by a lamp, a woman was lying like a corpse.
She was a slender and elegant woman with dark hair and a white, slim face and clear features.
‘Is this the prospective duchess?’
The question was whether this woman was Madame Katana.
‘Isn’t she too young to be Madame Katana?’
Claudel had also heard rumors about Madame Katana from several years ago. Madame Katana was surrounded by bizarre rumors in the palace.
She was a strange, ugly woman who was nicknamed the corpse wife or widow who swept the floor in a huge black dress the size of a mountain. She was a symbol of misfortune.
The woman in front of her was very skinny. Her arms and legs had firm muscle, clearly from working hard . There was no fat on her slim frame.
Even her face was far from ugly.
Perhaps it was because she was sick, but her arms and upper body were so thin that her bones stood out.
‘Besides, this woman only looks like she’s in her early twenties.’
There had been rumors that Madame Katana was actually close in age toPrincess Marianne.
Still, the rumored Madame Katana and the woman in front of her were very different.
“Hmm.”
Claudel doubted this woman’s identity and called several of the maids.
“When Madame Katana visited the Duke a few days ago, did any of you see the Madame’s face?”
When Madame Katana visited the Duke, it was Claudel’s day off.
That day, the maids who had seen Madame Katana tried to search their memories.
“I’ve seen her, but all I can think of is her huge body in a black dress.”
“I couldn’t even see her face in detail. It looked like she had her hands and face wrapped in her bonnet and black clothes.”
Emily, the maid who carried the tea to the drawing room on the first floor, answered.
“Madame Katana then and the one here today seem to have similar faces.”
“The problem is that they are so different in size.”
The maids couldn’t speak easily, but something strange was on their mind.
“The day Madame Katana came,something strange happened.”
“What happened?”
“When Madame Katana left, she looked like she had lost a lot of weight.”
“Her clothes were so big so I couldn’t see her face and hands clearly.”
“Yes, it was very big, and it seemed like she couldn’t move her body properly. She was stumbling, but compared to her size, she didn’t look like she was that heavy.”
Claudel recalled that Madame Katana was a maidservant to the queen. The queen’s maids were always called clowns for their bizarre makeup and outfits. What if Madame Katana was wearing such a disguise?
Claudel left Madame Katana with the other maids for a while and went downstairs. She faced the butler, Carl, the Duke’s doctor, Rambaud, who were monitoring the situation on the first floor. Rambaud asked Claudel.
“Is Madame Katana getting better?”
Claudel shook her head and asked him a question.
“But is the rumored Madame Katana and the lady upstairs the same person?”
“That-.”
Rambaud looked around quietly.
“Let’s move somewhere more private.”
They moved to a small parlor and talked.
Carl and Claudel insisted Rambaud explain the story behind the incident.
He briefly explained what happened in the palace.
Princess Marianne had brought in the Marquis of Quill to break her engagement with the Duke.
Marianne wanted to kill the Duke and Riv, the third party in the scandal, so she gave the Duke a lethal dose of poison and imprisoned both of them in the same room.
“The Duke is fine, but Princess Marianne wanted to take care of Madame Katana properly. It is possible that Madame Katana was severely punished by the princess or the queen.”
For Claudel, this story was not surprising.
“Many noble women went to the palace as the queen’s maid and disappeared without a trace.”
Most of the disappearances were the queen’s bizarre clown maids.
“The queen had these strange clown-looking maids. These maids disappeared very often.”
Because of this, nobles were reluctant to send their daughters to the royal family as maids.
Claudel also heard many rumors as a close aide to the previous Duchess. The queen tried to humiliate the previous Duchess Sentoren because she was jealous of her.
Queen Selina’s daughter, Princess Marianne, would be no different from her mother.
They were happy that Lionel and Princess Marianne’s engagement had been broken.
If Marianne had been willing to kill her maid, and even tried to kill her fiancé and his mistress, it was obvious what Marianne would do once she married the Duke of Sentoren.
However.
“The royal family may want to retract the cancellation of the Duke and Princess’ engagement.”
“The Duke may be considering an engagement with Miss Katana for that reason.”
They looked at each other
The royal family may retaliate against Madame Katana and Lionel. They had the natural power to use someone’s weakness and intimidate the target.
“I think the two should hurry up and get married soon.”
The soldiers of the Duke of Sentoren were concentrated in the southern part of the territory, so if the royal family captured the Duke of Sentoren, there would be no way to defend him properly.
Rambaud smiled kindly and saw that Carl, the butler, wasn’t worried.
“The Duke of Sentoren also needs a hostess. Miss Katana could be a wise Duchess.”